Rooms

«the sheet of water, of the mountains, and of the sky»

«As soon as I went up to my room, and opened the window facing the lake, the beauty of the sheet of water, of the mountains, and of the sky, at the first moment literally dazzled and overwhelmed me. I experienced an inward unrest, and the necessity of expressing in some manner the feelings that suddenly filled my soul to overflowing. I felt a desire to embrace, powerfully to embrace, some one, to tickle him, or to pinch him; in short to do to him and to myself something extraordinary.»

Lucerne by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Nathan Haskell Dole FROM THE RECOLLECTIONS OF PRINCE NEKHLIUDOF July 20, 1857.